Alexander The Great Malayalam Movie
On his father's demise, Manu Verma (Bala) arrives at Mumbai and spends the first half of the film finding his half brother Alexander (Mohanlal) whom he has never seen in his life, but who has been entrusted with the entirety of his father's wealth. He finds Alex and much to his surprise also discovers that he is not normal. The second half has Alexander arriving in Dubai with Manu and finally heading back to Mumbai. If you think that this cannot possibly be content enough for a story, better think again.
It's apparent that Alexander has gone bonkers, and twenty minutes into the film we are ready to give him company. These assaults at your normal thinking skills are frequent and they go on for the rest of the film. Alexander is a strange chap indeed, and to ensure that we get a pretty decent picture as to how his normal day goes, they show him getting up, walking around, having breakfast, lunch and dinner, reading books on the bed, and finally switching off the light at 12 in the night. Now with an elaborate detailing as this, you could hardly miss a point.
The real ordeal starts with Manu dragging Alexander out of the clinic. The problem you see is that Alexander keeps asking for specific colored shirts as the clock keeps ticking away. So we need to hang on till the shirt change is over. And once that's done, he insists on a number at the dinner table. Four is the magic number, whether it be idlis or chapathis. Yes, you got it right. We need to stay around till those idlis arrive.
Wait. If you are wondering if Alexander is just nuts, he isn't. The man is a real genius. For starters, he was about to graduate from a medical school. He learns telephone directories by heart. He could tell you which continent Egypt is in. And to top it all, he takes part in Maths Wizard competitions and wins a cash prize of one lakh rupees. Now this is a breath-stopping event that goes on for a good ten minutes or so with some guy asking questions in English (with subtitles in Malayalam!!) and Alexander coming up with spectacular answers.
Now these are what you call the normal-genius skills. What is almost paranormal is when Alex lures his mates away from a car and it bursts into flames a few minutes later. So when he says that he won't board a flight, we sense something is wrong. And indeed it is, since the announcement comes quite soon that the flight has crashed. Besides predicting, he could rush you into an operation theatre if you are in dire need of a surgery, and do an impeccable act that would have the duty doctors gasping for more.
From what I was able to gather from a couple of hours and slightly more, I have kept aside a few real gems. The first one is that there is a very thin line between sanity and insanity. The most insane person might be the sanest one around, we are told. It all depends on the way we view things. That's pretty comforting. The second one is that you just need to pretend to be insane if you are accused of murder. They will let you live in a mental sanatorium for the rest of your life.
Mohanlal is the true savior in this film, as much as it remains that the film itself could never be saved. This is what I would call a survivor act, and this amazing actor swims across the torrent with his head held high. A brave act indeed, when there is literally nothing else that makes this film worth a watch.
Alexander the Great is as incomprehensible as the mutterings of its chief character. It's confused, and utterly unfathomable. It has nothing going for it except its leading star.
